The Bedlam Detective

Description

Madmen may see monsters – but some monsters hide in plain sight From a basement office in London’s notorious Bethlehem Hospital, former policeman and Pinkerton agent, Sebastian Becker investigates those whose dubious mental health may render them unfit to manage their own affairs. When Becker is sent to interview wealthy landowner Sir Owain Lancaster, he claims that the same dark creatures who killed his family and colleagues in the Amazon have followed him home and are responsible for the deaths of two local young girls. It is not the first time that children have come to harm in his rural countryside town, though few are willing to speak of incidents from the past. Becker must determine whether this mad nobleman is insane and possibly a murderer, or if something more sinister is at work. From dank asylums to the lush and treacherous Amazon, through the makeshift studios of the early film industry and a traveling fair of freaks and illusions, Sebastian Becker’s search for answers brings him face to face with madmen and monsters, both imagined and real.

About the Author

Stoker and World Fantasy Award nominee, winner of British Fantasy and International Horror Guild Awards for his short fiction, Stephen Gallagher has a career both as a novelist and as a creator of primetime miniseries and episodic television. His fifteen novels includeChimera, Oktober, Valley of LightsandNightmare, with Angel. He's the creator of Sebastian Becker, Special Investigator to the Lord Chancellor's Visitor in Lunacy, in a series of novels that includesThe Kingdom of Bones, The Bedlam Detective,andThe Authentic William James. In his native England he's adapted and created hour-long and feature-length thrillers and crime dramas. In the US he was lead writer on NBC'sCrusoe, creator of CBS Television'sEleventh Hour, and Co-Executive Producer on ABC'sThe Forgotten. Recent screen credits include an award-winningSilent WitnessandStan Lee's Lucky Man.He began his TV career as a writer on two seasons ofDoctor Who, and wrote two novelizations of his stories under the pseudonym John Lydecker.** Photo by Lisa Bowerman **